Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-03-17
Has Commissioner Sparks attempted to
Knife Cleveland?


WASHINGTON, March 16th.-[Special j
A sensational story is published to-day to
the effect that Commissioner Sparks, OF the
General Land Office, has written letters to
New York politicians, advising the noml-
nation of Governor Hill as the next Demo
cratic candidate for President, to defeat
Cley1iend II is asserted that these letters
are in the possession of Ed. Stokes, propri-
etor of the Hoffman House, New York.
The story goes that ex-Representatiye
Hard. of Ohio. is attorney for the Nevada
Renk' of San Francisco; that John w.
Mackay has an interest in that bank, and.
as everybody knows, Mackay is the hacker
of Stokes in the Holman House, IN
the Bankers and Merchants Telegraph
Company, and in other enterprises. The
Nevada Bank has pending before the Com
missioner of Public Lands claim for
some $500 900 or so. Hurd is the attorney
for the prosecution of that claim. John
A. Benson has the contract for surveying
vast quantities of public lands in Cali
fornia, Utah. Nevada Arizona, and other
parts of the West, and there being no
money available to pay him for his work,
he was given certificates, which he got
cashed at the Nevada Bank TO the extent
of half million dollars or so. These Ger
tificates were sent on to Washington, were
audited in the Treasury Department and
then payment ordered by Durham, First
Comptroller. They were sent to the
Land Office for payment but
Sparks rejected them. He charged
that the contracts were conceived in
fraud and executed in iniquity. 1t was
conspiracy to rob the Government and to
swindle poor taxpayers. He did not dis
pute that Benson bad surveyed the lands,
or that he had been ordered to do SO by
Sparks predecessor in Office. The contracts
were legal on their face, and there was no
evidence that they had not been executed.
But there had been no need of making the
SURVEYS. The lands in great part were
barren deserts, on which no man could
live, and to survey them was wicked
waste of money; hence he declined to pay
the bills.
1t made Comptroller Durham very indig-
nant that an account which he had ap-
proved had been pronounced fraud and
swindle, whereupcn the Comptroller ad-
dressed a letter to Sparks. directing him to
pay the Benson claim at once, assuming to
be his superior officer.
Sparksreplied promptly and peremptorily
that he would not do it-that the claim
was a fraud, and be knew it, and as long as
he was Commissioner of Public Lands it
would not be paid. He also denied that
Durham was his superior officer, and de-
clined to be dictated to by him.
The question was referred to the Attor-
ney-General, who was asked TO decide
which was the bigger man, Durham or
Sparks. Garland sent the conundrum to
the Solicitor General for an answer, and
the latter decided that they were independ-
ent of each other, so far as they were OIL
cially concerned: that Sparks had no au-
IL, f, q 4 of
and Durham had no right to direct Sparks
what he should or should not do. The
execution of warrant on the Treasury
was discretionary with an officer Like
Sparks, who had a right to withhold the
payment of accounts that had been exam
ined and allowed at the Treasury, provided
he felt there was good reason for so doing.
In the Benson claim Sparks insisted there
was fraud, aud if he believed it, he was
manifestly right in declining to order its
payment.
Commissioner Sparks said to your CORE
spondent to-day that the whole story was
a fabrication; that he had never written
letters advising the nomination of Hill,
and challenged their production. In rela-
ton to the disagreement between himself
and First Comptroller Durham, he said
that his reasons for disallowing the Benson
claims were misstated. They were under
contracts made by his predecessor, it was
true, he said, but the surveys had never
been made He disallowed the contracts,
not because they ought not to have been
made, but because service under contracts
had never been performed.
The general opinion exists that the story
was published for the purpose Of BULLDOG
ing Sparks into the payment of the claim.
! Sparks has been a close friend of the Presi-
dent and if it could be shown he had been
unfaithfuI to Cleveland ne would not be
likely long to retain bis place.